Theme:
Front Man17A: Valet:
MAN SERVANT28A: Polite:
MANNERLY45A: Seacows:
MANATEES 59A: Handle:
MANIPULATE 11D: Display dummy:
MANNEQUIN35D: Instruments similar to lutes:
MANDOLINSMAN! I failed again. Third day in a row.
Lots of false starts: MANNERED instead of
MANNERLY. SEPARATE instead of
SET APART (24A: Isolate). All my own faults though. We've solved quite a few Ed Voile puzzles lately, yet I still can not find his pattern.
"Cold War letters" (7D) would be an OK clue for USSR or SSR, but for
USA? No! We've long entered the Obama era.
ADD (20A: What summers do) gave me lots of trouble. I could not figure out anything about the intersecting down clues, so I tried hard to think what summers do to me. But neither TAN or SUN fits. If there were a question mark behind the clue, I might have interpret "summers" correctly and thought of
ADD. Sigh! I just mentioned a possible "Chinese summer?" for ABACUS last time.
Across:1A: John L. or Jerry Lee:
LEWIS. Did not know the CIO founder
John L. LEWIS. President of the United Mine Workers of America from from 1920 to 1960. And a major player in the history of coal mining.
14A: Ward off:
AVERT. I like how it crosses
EVADE (2D: Escape cleverly).
16A: Gilbert of Teasdale:
SARA19A: Small piece:
SNIP. New meaning of SNIP to me.
22A: Intrinsic nature:
ESSENCE.
PER SE is often clued as "Intrinsically".
39A: Cinematic nightmare street:
ELM. "A Nightmare on
ELM Street". I don't like horror movies.
42A: "William Wilson" writer:
POE. Have never heard of
this short story. "The Raven" & "Annabel Lee", that's all the
POE work I know.
43A: Scantily:
THINLY. Not fond of the LY repetition. "Without much density" is better.
49A: Airs out:
FRESHENS. I kept thinking of AERATES.
56A: North sea bird:
AUK. I was really fooled by
this Penguin clip. Now your turn! (OK,
It's an April Fools' joke.)
62A: Five-star:
A ONE65A: Profit's partner?:
LOSS. Would EERS be an acceptable answer as well? Profiteers.
Down:1D: Actor Fernando:
LAMAS. No idea. He is the
father of Lorenzo LAMAS (left).
3D: George of "Cheers":
WENDT. Unknown to me also. I only recognize Ted Danson & Woody Harrelson in
this picture. 5D: Stovetop utensils:
STEWPANS. Holy cow! I've never heard of STEWPANS. Use slow cooker for stew.
6D: River to the Bristol Channel:
SEVERN. Nope.
Here is a map. Click on it, the map will enlarge. See the word
SEVERN to the right of Newport? It's the longest river in Britain.
12D: Stoltz of "Mask":
ERIC. Easy guess. Have zero familarity with
this actor.
26D: Pekoe piece:
TEA LEAF. Have you had
chrysanthemum tea before?
33D: "Truth or __":
DARE. Is this
the movie about Madonna? I wanted LIES.
37D: Actress Van Devere:
TRISH. Forgot. She was married to
George Scott. I like his "Patton".
40D: Cushing/Lee horror film:
THE SKULL. No idea.
Looks terrifying.
42D: California observatory peak:
PALOMAR. Spanish for "Pigeon house". Saw this clue somewhere before.
45D: Bub:
MAC. This reminds me of the Baboo episode in "Seinfeld". But isn't baboo an offensive slang for Indian?
46D: Attributes:
TRAITS. Did not come to me readily.
51D: Observant one:
NOTER. This word feels like NEEDER/WANTER to me. It exists only in the dictionary.
55D: Corduroy rib:
WALE. Like
this. Ribbed twill is SERGE. Any SERGE Gainsbourg fan there?
This picture looks so doctored.
This is TRUER. Jane Birkin is very skinny.
C.C.